Roberts on his return to first team duty

Mark Roberts made his first start of the season in tonight’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy defeat to rivals Morecambe at Highbury.

Roberts had been sidelined for the first month or so of the season, but returned to the substitutes bench at the weekend before starting against the Shrimps.

The Cod Army took a first half lead through Gareth Evans, but Jim Bentley’s men responded well courtesy of goals from Padraig Amond and Jack Redshaw before the break.

As Town looked to claw themselves back into the competition that served them so well last term, Amond pounced for his second of the night on 80 minutes to all but seal the win.

Speaking to the Club’s official website after the defeat, Roberts said: “The way we played in the first 20-25 minutes you could only really see one winner, but we let them back into the game and it was sloppy from us.”

“We’ve been really good defensively this season so it wasn’t good enough from us tonight and we understand that. We’re better players than that and we shouldn’t allow it to happen.”

Roberts has had to watch his teammates from the sidelines during the early parts of the season, and the Club captain admitted it’s been hard.

“It’s been frustrating being out injured and watching the lads doing so well. They’ve been fantastic though and we’ve made a really good start.”

“I’m grateful to be back out on the pitch but we lost the game and we’ve just got to rub ourselves down and we go again.”